<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Wakened God</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">The</span> War-god wakened drowsily;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">There were gold chains about his hands.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">He said: "And who shall reap my lands</p><p class="line">And bear the tithes to Death for me?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">"The nations stilled my thunderings;</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">They wearied of my steel despair,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The flames from out my burning hair:</p><p class="line">Is there an ending of such things?"</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Low laughed the Earth, and answered: "When</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Was any changeless law I gave</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Changed by my sons intent to save,</p><p class="line">By puny pitying hands of men?</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">"I feel no ruth for some I bear....</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">The swarming, hungering overflow</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Of crowded millions, doomed to go,</p><p class="line">They must destroy who chained you there.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">"For some bright stone or shining praise</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">They stint a million bodies' breath,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And sell the women, shamed, to death,</p><p class="line">And send the men brief length of days.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">"They kill the bodies swift for me,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And kill the souls you gave to peace....</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">You were more merciful than these,</p><p class="line">Old master of my cruelty.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">"Lo, souls are scarred and virtues dim:</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Take back thy scourge of ministry,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Rise from thy silence suddenly,</p><p class="line">Lest these still take Death's toll to him!"</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">The War-God snapped his golden chain:</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">His mercies thundered down the world,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And lashing battle-lines uncurled</p><p class="line">And scourged the crouching lands again.</p></div><p class="byline">-- Margaret Widdemer.</p></body></html> · Great War